Friday, December 23, 2011

Christmas spending

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On the TV, there was a segment last night about consumer spending in this Christmas season. High-end items like Ferraris and entire libraries at Nieman Marcus were flying off the shelves. And then there were the ugly-but-labeled women's hand bags and ludicrous, hooker-inspired shoes ... v-e-r-y expensive and selling like hot cakes.

At the other end of the spectrum, dollar stores -- the places that advertise every item for 99 cents -- were enjoying a serious up-tick in business. Those who had once shopped between these two extremes were clogging the aisles in a push to save what little money was left.

Businesses that catered to a 'middle class' crowd were losing business because, of course, the 'middle class' is declining into a relative poverty. Middling businesses are losing their economic viability. The 'nobility' of the present (not terribly noble, but pretty damned rich) needed more and one way to get more is to create more 'serfs.'

In Saudi Arabia, I once heard, the oil wealth of that nation went partly into assuring that everyone got housing and education and medical care and even a car. The nobility seemed to recognize that when people were taken care of, extreme wealth would be bolstered and assured. No one who feels secure goes out and destabilizes the status quo.

Sometimes you have to wonder how the very rich can be so very stupid.
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3 comments:

"Sometimes you have to wonder how the very rich can be so very stupid.

They very rich may be far less stupid than you think.

From recent speech at MIT by the mayor of NYC, Michael Bloomberg:

"“I have my own army in the NYPD, which is the seventh biggest army in the world. I have my own State Department, much to Foggy Bottom’s annoyance. We have the United Nations in New York, and so we have an entree into the diplomatic world that Washington does not have...."

If you watch what he has been doing for the past decasde it is clear that Bloomberg believes not in democracy but in an oligrachy. But it may be is undoing in that he has become one of the more arrogant of the ultra wealthy. Like the ultra wealthy (and drug lords) around the world, they perpetrate (class) warfare but dare name label there actions as such. Lke the rest of the oligarchists he is preparing for the eventual reality of class warfare. At the same time people like Bloomberg piously voice that the citizens should be banned from arming themselves. This is all about dis-empowerment of the public and the empowerment of the oligarchy.

My name is Adam Fisher. My Dharma name is Genkaku. I live in Northampton, Mass., U.S.A. This is my blog. It consists of almost-daily postings -- sometimes about the Zen Buddhism I have admired and practiced; sometimes about other 'spiritual' matters; and mostly about whatever strikes my fancy. Except to the extent that it might help others to consider what kind of fool they would prefer not to be, this blog does not aim to help anyone. Since we are all helping each other all the time, that would be fatuous. This blog is simply a testament to the fact that I have a long and as-yet unbroken habit of writing. I write so ... I write. Behind the house here, there is a small meditation hall, Black Moon Zendo, where the public is welcome to come and practice. I can be contacted at genkakukigen@aol.com